1. A man of Assisi prophetically venerates the young Francis, spreading his mantle at his feet in the town square

Afterwards, when he had perfectly put on Christ, Francis would say that even while he was in secular attire he could scarcely ever hear any mention of the divine love without being deeply moved in his heart.  At the same time the sensitivity of his gentleness, together with a refined set of manners, a patience and affability  beyond human decorum, and a generosity beyond his means singled him out as a young man of flourishing natural disposition. This seemed to be a prelude to the even greater abundance of God's blessings that would be showered on him in the future. Indeed a certain exceptionally simple man of Assisi, whom it is believed God had instructed, whenever he chanced to meet Francis going through the city, used to take off his cloak and spread the garment under his feet, claiming that Francis was worthy of reverence, since he was destined to do great things in the near future and would be magnificently honoured by the entire body of the faithful.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, I:1

2. Francis gives his mantle to a poor knight

Up to this time, Francis was ignorant of God's counsel for him.  Drawn in several directions to the external by the demand of his father as well as forced down to the inferior by the corruption of his natural origin, he had not yet learned how to contemplate the celestial nor had he become accustomed to savour the divine.  And because affliction can enlighten spiritual awareness, the hand of the Lord was upon him, afflicting his body with prolonged illness in order to prepare his soul for the anointing of the Holy Spirit.  And when the strength of his body was restored, dressed as usual in his fine clothes, he met a knight who was of noble birth but poor and badly clothed.  Moved by a pious impulse of care for his poverty, he took off his own garments and clothed the man on the spot.  At one and the same time he fulfilled the two-fold duty of covering over the embarassment of a noble  knight and relieving the want of a poor human being.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, I:2

3. Francis sees in a dream a palace filled with arms marked with the cross

When he had fallen asleep, the divine kindness showed him a large and splendid palace with military arms emblazoned with the insignia of Christ's cross. When he asked to whom these belonged, the response he received was that all these things were for him and his knights. He assessed the unusual vision to be a judgment of great prosperity in the future.  For this reason he set out to join a generous count in Apulia, hoping to obtain the glory of knighthood, as his vision had foreshadowed. Shortly after he had embarked on his journey and had gone as far as the neighbouring city, he heard the Lord speaking to him during the night , "Francis, who can do more for you, a lord or a servant, a rich person or one who is poor?" When Francis replied that a lord and a rich person could do more, he was at once asked, "Why, then, are you abandoning the Lord for a servant and the rich God for a poor mortal?"  And Francis replied, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" And the Lord answered him, "Go back to your own land ..."  When morning came, he returned in haste to Assisi, free of care and filled with joy, and he awaited the Lord's will.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend, I:3

4. Francis prays before the Crucifix at San Damiano

One day while passing in front of the church of St Damian, which was threatening to collapse because of age, Francis felt an irresistible urge to go inside.  He prostrated himself before the image of Christ with devotion.  Suddenly he felt like a completely different being.  While he was in the grip of this emotion, the image of Christ crucified began to talk.   He called him by name and said to him: 'Go, Francis, and repair my house because it is falling into ruin.'   Francis was stupified.  He trembled all over and almost went out of  his mind at those words.  He prepared himself to obey and summoned all his energies in order to carry out the command.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of Saint Francis, VI:2

5. Francis renounces his paternal inheritance, stripping off his clothes before the Bishop of Assisi

His father of the flesh worked on leading the child of grace, now stripped of his money, before the bishop of the city that he might renounce his family possessions into his hands and return everything he had.  The true lover of poverty showed himself eager to comply and went before the bishop without delaying or hesitating.  He did not wait for any words nor did he speak  any, but immediately took off his clothes and gave them back to his father.  Then it was discovered that the man of God had a hair shirt next to his skin under his fine clothes.  Moreover, drunk with remarkable fervour, he even took off his trousers, and was completely stripped naked before everyone.  He said to his father, "Until now I have called you father here on earth, but now I can say without reservation, 'Our Father who art in heaven,' since I have placed all my hope and all my treasure in him."  The bishop, recognising and admiring such intense fervour in the man of God, immediately stood up and in tears drew him into his arms, covering him with the mantle that he was wearing.  Like the pious and good man that he was, he bade his servants give him something to cover his body.  They brought him a poor cheap cloak of a farmer who worked for the bishop, which he accepted gratefully and with his own hand marked a cross on it with a piece of chalk, thus designating it as the covering of a crucified and half-naked poor man.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, II:4

6. Innocent III in a dream sees St. Francis supporting the falling Lateran

While the Vicar of Christ listened attentively to a parable told by Francis and its interpretation, he was quite amazed and recognised without a doubt that Christ had spoken in this man.  But he also confirmed a vision he had recently received from heaven, that, as the Divine Spirit indicated, would be fulfilled in this man.  He saw in a dream, as he recounted, the Lateran basilica almost ready to fall down.  A little poor man, small and scorned, was propping it up with his own back bent so that it would not fall.  "I'm sure," he said, "he is the one who will hold up Christ's Church by what he does and what he teaches."  Because of this, filled with exceptional devotion, he bowed to the request in everything and always loved Christ's servant with special love.  Then he granted what was asked and promised even more.  He approved the rule, gave them a mandate to preach penance, and had small tonsures given to all the lay brothers, who were accompanying the servant of God, so that they could freely preach the word of God.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, III:10

        .                                                  7.  Pope Innocent III approves the Franciscan Rule

At an audience in the spring of 1209 Pope Innocent III must have been startled when he was approached by a group of barefooted men who called themselves 'The Pentinents of Assisi,' dressed in the coarse tunic worn by Umbrian peasants. The group was led by a young man 'short, thin, with burning eyes,' whose face bore the marks of penitential self-denial. The presentations were made by Bishop Guido of Assisi. The thin man with the burning eyes began to speak: he did not protest against anybody or anything.  He asked only to be allowed to live in evangelical poverty, according to the Rule that he had presented 'written with few words, and making use above all of the texts of the Gospel.'  Pope Innocent unexpectedly adopted a special procedure and verbally approved the Rule that Francis had presented to him.  Many of the Pope's advisors objected that this Rule was too austere, but Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo told the Pope, 'If we reject the petition of this poor man on the grounds that the Rule is new and too austere when he petitions us to approve a form of life which is in keeping with the Gospel, we must fear that we may displease the very Gospel of Jesus Christ.'  So was born the Franciscan Order.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of Saint Francis, III:10

8. St. Francis, glorious in a chariot of fire, appears to the friars in Rivotorto

While the brothers were still staying in an abandoned hut near Assisi, one Saturday the holy man entered the city of Assisi to preach in the cathedral on Sunday morning, as was his custom.  In a hut situated in the garden of the canons, away from his sons in body, the man devoted to God spent the night in his customary way in the prayer of God.  About midnight, while some of the brothers were resting and others were persevering in prayer, behold, a fiery chariot of wonderful brilliance entering the door of the house moved here and there through the little house three times.  On top of it sat a bright globe that looked like the sun, anf it made the night bright as day.  Those who were awake were dumbfounded, while those sleeping were disturbed and, at the same time, terrified: they sensed the brightness with their hearts as much as with their bodies, while the conscience of each was laid bare to the others by the power of that marvelous light.  As they looked into each other's hearts, they all understood that the holy father, while away from them in body, was present in spirit, like a second Elijah, that they might follow him as true Israelites.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, IV:4

9. A Brother sees a precious throne in heaven destined for the humble Francis

A certain brother, a man of outstanding virtue and devotion, when he was in the company of the man of God and was praying fervently with him in a deserted church, passed into an ecstasy, and saw among the many thrones in heaven one more noble than the rest, adorned with precious stones and glittering with great glory.  He wondered within himself at the splendour of the lofty throne, and thought quietly about whose it might be.  Then he heard a voice saying to him: 'This throne belonged to one of those who fell, and now it is reserved for the humble Francis.' 
As they went along the road, talking to one another about God, that brother, mindful of his vision, skilfully asked Francis what he thought of himself. The humble servant of Christ said to him: 'I see myself as the greated of sinners.'  When the brother protested that, to the contrary, he could not say or feel this with a good conscience, Francis continued: 'If Christ had pursued a great criminal with such mercy, I surely think he would be much more grateful to God than I.'  At hearing such remarkable humility, the brother was convinced of the truth of his vision, knowing from the Gospel that the truly humble will be exalted to the height of glory from which the proud have been cast out.

Cf. St Bonaventure's Major Legend of Saint Francis, VI:6

10. Francis, through Fra Sylvester, expels the demons of civil war from Arezzo

It happened once that he came to Arezzo at a time when the whole city was shaken by a civil war that threatened its destruction.  From  the outskirts he saw demons over the city leaping for joy and arousing the troubled citizens to mutual slaughter.  In order to put to flight those seditious evil spirits, he sent Brother Sylvester, a man of dove-like simplicity, before him as a herald, telling him, "Go in front of the city gate and, on behalf of Almighty God, command the devils to leave at once."  The man obediently hurried to carry out his Father's orders and, caught up in praise before the face of the Lord, he began to cry out boldly in front of the city gate, "In the name of Almighty God and by the command of his servant Francis, get away from here, all you demons."  At once the city returned to tranquillity  and the citizens reformed their civil law peaceably.

Cf. St Bonaventure's Major Legend of Saint Francis, VI:9

11. Francis before the Sultan challenges his priests to a test of fire to prove which is the true faith

Although a cruel edict had been issued by the Sultan that whoever  brought back the head of a Christian would be rewarded with a gold piece, Francis taking a companion with him decided to make the journey.  After they had been maltreated in many ways, by divine providence they were led to the Sultan as the man of God had hoped.  When that ruler inquired by whom, why, and how they had been sent and got there, Francis answered with an intrepid heart that he had been sent not by man but by the Most High God in order to point out to him and his people the way of salvation and to annouce the Gospel of truth.  The Sultan, perceiving in the man of God a fervour of spirit and a courage that had to be admired, willingly listened to him and invited him to stay longer with him.  Francis urged the Sultan to have an enormous fire lit and offered to walk into it with his Moslem priests to test which of them preached the truth.  The Sultan replied that he did not dare to accept this choice and offered Francis many precious gifts which the man of God spurned as if they were dirt.  This aroused the admiration and respect of the Sultan all the more, so that he allowed Francis to go back safely to his own country.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, IX:8

12. The companions of Francis gaze in admiration at the Saint in ecstasy

The brothers who were devoutly observing him heard him on several occasions groan with loud cries, imploring the divine mercy for sinners and weeping over the Lord's passion as if it were before him.  He was seen praying at night with his hands outstretched in the form of a cross, his whole body lifted up from the ground and surrounded by a sort of shining cloud, so that the extraordinary illumination around his body was a witness to the wonderful light that shone within his soul. 

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, X:4

13. Francis celebrates Christmas of 1223, creating the first crib

It happened, three years prior to his death, that Francis decided to celebrate at the town of Greccio the memory of the birth of the Child Jesus with greatest possible solemnity, in order to arouse devotion.  So that this would not be considered a type of novelty, he petitioned for and obtained permission from the Supreme Pontiff.  He had a manger prepared, hay carried in and an ox and an ass led to the spot.  The brethren are summoned, the people arrive, the forest amplifies with their cries, and that venerable night is rendered brilliant and solemn by a multitude of bright lights and by resonant and harmonious hymns of praise.  The man of God stands before the manger, filled with piety, bathed in tears, overcome with joy.  A solemn Mass is celebrated over the manger, with Francis, a levite of Christ, chanting the holy Gospel. Then he preaches to the people standing around him about the birth of the poor King, whom, whenever he means to call him, he called in his tender love the Babe of Bethlehem.  Sir John of Greccio claimed that he saw a beautiful little child asleep in that manger whom the blessed father Francis embraced in both of his arms and seemed to wake it from sleep.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major legend of St. Francis, X:7

14. Francis causes a spring of water to flow from a rock for a thirsty man accompanying him

Another time as Francis wanted to go to a hermitage, because he was weak he rode on a donkey belonging to a certain poor man.  That man climbed up the mountain following Christ's servant.  Worn out from the journey and weakened by a burning thirst he began to cry out after the saint, "I'll die of thirst if I don't get a drink immediately!"  Without delay the man of God leaped down from the donkey, knelt on the ground, raised his hands to heaven and prayed unceasingly until he understood that he had been heard.  After he had finished his prayer, he told the man, "Hurry over there to the rock and you will find living water where at this hour Christ has mercifully brought forth water from the rock for you to drink."

The Saint is shown in an attitude of trustful prayer. The thirsty man is slaking his thirst with an eagerness that shows how he has suffered.  The mystic attitude of Francis is made more expressive when contratsted with the well-fed group which stands to one side on the left of the picture.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, VII:12

                                                               15. Francis preaches to the birds near Bevagna

When he was approaching Bevagna, he came upon a place where a large flock of birds of various kinds had gathered.  When Francis saw them, he ran to the spot and greeted them as though they had human reason.  They all became alert and turned towards him, and those perched in the trees bent their heads as he approached them and in an uncommon way directed their attention to him.  He approched them and intently encouraged them all to hear the word of God, saying, "My brother birds, you should greatly praise your Creator, who clothed you with feathers, gave you wings for flight, entrusted to you the pure air. and governs you without your least care."  The birds began to stretch their necks, spread their wings, open their beaks, and look at him.  None of them left the place until the man of God made the sign of the cross and gave them a blessing and permission to leave.  Upon returning to his companions, the simple man began to accuse himself of negligence because he had not previously preached to the birds.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, XII:3

16. Francis foretells the imminent death of a knight of Celano who has invited him to dinner

At another time, after his return from overseas, he went with a companion to Celano to preach, and a certain knight invited him very insistently to dine with him.  So they came to the knight's home and the whole family delighted at the arrival of the poor guests.  Before they took any food, the man of God offered prayers and praise to God as was his custom, standing with this eyes raised to heaven.  When he had finished his prayer, he called his kind host aside and told him in confidence, "Look brother host, overcome by your insistence I have entered your home to eat.  Now heed my warnings immediately, because you shall not eat here but elsewhere.  Confess your sins right now.  The Lord will reward you today for receiving his poor servants with such devotion."  The man agreed to the saint's words without delay, he did everything in his power to prepare for death.  Then they went to the table, and while the others began to eat, suddenly their host breathed forth his spirit, carried away by sudden death according to the word of the man of God.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, XI:4

17. St. Francis improvises a sermon before Pope Honorius III

Once when he was to preach before the Pope and Cardinals at the suggestion of the Lord of Ostia, he memorised a sermon which he had carefully composed.   When he stood in their midst to offer his edifying words, he went completely blank and was unable to say anything at all.  This he admitted to them in true humility and directed himself to invoke the grace of the Holy Spirit.  Suddenly he began to over flow with such effective eloquence and to move the minds of those high-ranking men to compunction with such force and power that it was clearly evident it was not he, but the Spirit of the Lord who was speaking.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, XII:7

18. Francis appears at Arles while St Anthony is speaking to the friars in chapter

The outstanding preacher Anthony was preaching to the brothers at the chapter of Arles on the inscription on the cross "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews".  As he glanced at the door of the chapter, a brother of proven virtue, Monaldo by name, moved by a divine reminder, saw with his bodily eyes blessed Francis lifted up in the air with his arms extended as if on a cross, blessing the brothers. All the brothers felt themselves filled with a consolation of spirit, so great and so unusual, that it weas certain to them that the Spirit was bearing witness to the true presence of the holy father among them.  This was later confirmed by the external testimony of the words of the holy father himself.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, IV:10

19. Francis receives the stigmata on the mountain of La Verna

Two years before he returned his spirit to heaven, he was led by divine providence to a high place apart called Mount La Verna. On a certain morning about the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, while Francis was praying on the mountainside, he saw a Seraph having six wings, fiery as well as brilliant, descend from the grandeur of heaven. And when in swift flight it had arrived at a spot in the air near the man of God, there appeared betwen the wings the likeness of a man crucified, with his hands and feet extended in the form of a cross and fastened to a cross. Two of the wings were raised above his head, two were extended for flight, and two covered his whole body. Seeing this he was overwhelmed and his heart was flooded with a mixture of joy and sorrow. He rejoiced at the gracious way Christ looked upon him under the appearance of the Seraph, but the fact that he was fastened to a cross pierced his soul with a sword of compassionate sorrow. As the vision was disappearing, it left in his heart a marvellous fire and imprinted in his flesh a likeness of signs no less marvellous. For immediately the marks of nails began to appear in his hand and feet just as he had seen a little before in the figure of the man crucified.  His hand and feet seemed to be pierced through the centre by nails, with the heads of the nails appearing on the inner side of the hands and the upper side of the feet and their points on the opposite sides. The heads of the nails in his hands and his feet were round and black; their points were oblong and bent as if driven back with a hammer, and they emerged from the flesh and stuck out beyond it. Also his right side, as if pierced with a lance, was marked with a red wound from which his sacred blood often flowed.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, XIII:3

20. The death and apotheosis of St. Francis

Since he could not walk because of the nails protruding from his feet he had his half-dead body carried through the towns and villages to arouse others to carry the cross of Christ.  He used to say to the brothers,"Let us begin, brothers, to serve the Lord our God, for up to now we have done little."  
Two years after the imprinting of the sacred stigmata, that is in the twentieth year of his conversion, he asked to be taken to Saint Mary of the Portiuncula, so that he might yield up the spirit of life where he had received the spirit of grace.  When he had been brought there, he threw himself in fervour of spirit totally naked on the naked ground.  Lying like this on the ground stripped of his sackcloth garment, he lifted up his face to heaven and covered with his left hand the wound in his right side, so that no one would see it.  And he said to his brothers, "I have done what is mine, may Christ teach you yours."   When the hour of his passing was approaching, he had all the brothers called to him and exhorted them to divine love with fatherly affection.  He stretched his hand over them, crossing his arms in the form of a cross, for he always loved this sign. 
At last, when all the mysteries were fulfilled in him and that most holy soul was released from the flesh and absorbed into the abyss of divine light, the blessed man fell asleep in the Lord.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, XIV:1-6

21. Francis at the moment of his death appears simultaneously to a Minister Provincial and to the Bishop of Assisi

At that time the minister of the brothers in Terra di Lavoro was Brother Augustine, a man both holy and upright, who was in his last hour and had already for some time lost his speech.  In the hearing of those were standing about, he suddenly cried out, "Wait for me, father, wait!  Look I'm coming with you!"  The amazed brothers asked him to whom he was speaking so boldly.  And he replied, "Don't you see our father Francis going to heaven?"  And immediately his holy soul, leaving the flesh, followed the most holy father.
At that time the bishop of Assisi had been at the shrine of Saint Michael on Monte Gargano because of a pilgrimage.  Blessed Francis appeared to him on the night of his passing and said, "Behold, I am leaving the world and am going to heaven."  When he rose in the morning the bishop told his companions what he had seen, and returning to Assisi, he carefully inquired and found out with certainty that the blessed father had departed this world at the very hour when he had appeared to him in this vision.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, XIV:6

22. An Assisi nobleman verifies the stigmata of Francis

When the people heard of the passing of our blessed father and news of his miracles had spread, they hurried to the place to see with their own eyes so that they could dispel all doubt and add joy to their love.  A great number of the citizens of Assisi were admitted to contemplate those sacred marks with their own eyes and to kiss them with their lips.  One of them, a knight who was educated and prudent, Jerome by name, a distinguished and famous man, had doubts about these sacred signs and was unbelieving like Thomas.  Fervently and boldly, in the presencce of the brothers and the citizens, he did not hesitate to move the nails and to touch with his hands the saint's hands, feet, and side.  While he was examining with his hands these authentic signs of Christ's wounds, he completely healed the wound of doubt in his own heart and the hearts of others.  As a result, later along with others, he bacame a firm witness to this truth that he come to know with such certainty and he swore to it on the Gospel.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, XV:4

23. The sacred remains of Francis are venerated by St. Clare at San Damiano

His brothers and sons, who had been called to their father's passing, with the whole multitude of people, spent that night, in which the blessed confessor of Christ departed, in the divine praises.  They did this in such a way that it seemed to be a vigil of angels, not a wake for the dead.  When day was breaking, the crowds that had assembled took branches from the trees and carried his sacred body to the city of Assisi, with a blaze of many candles and hymns and songs.  As they passed the church of San Damiano, where the noble virgin Clare was then living enclosed with the virgins, they stopped for a while so that these holy nuns could see and kiss his sacred body, adorned with its heavenly pearls.  Finally reaching the city with great rejoicing, with all reverence they place the precious treasure they were carrying in the church of Saint George.
There as a boy he learned his letters, there he later preached for the first time, and there, finally, he received his first place of rest.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, XV:5

24. Gregory IX declares Francis a saint with a solemn canonization in Assisi

That shepherd of the Church, Pope Gregory IX, was fully convinced of Francis's remarkable holiness, not only from hearing of the miracles after his death, but also from his own experience during his life.  He had no doubt that Francis was glorified in heaven by the Lord.  In order to act in conformity with Christ, whose vicar he was, after prayerful consideration he decided to glorify him on earth by proclaiming him worthy of all veneration.  In order to certify to the whole world the glorification of this most holy man, he had the known miracles recorded and attested to by appropriate witness.  These he submitted to the examination of those cardinals who seemed less favourable to his cause.  This material was examined carefully and approved by all.  He decreed, with the unanimous advice and assent of his brothers and all the prelates who were then in the curia, that Francis should be canonised.   Gregory came personally to the city of Assisi in the one thousandth, two hundredth, and twenty-eighth year of the Incarnation of the Lord, on the seventeenth day of the calends of August, a Sunday, and enrolled the blessed father in the catalogue of the saints, in a great and solemn ceremony that would be too long to describe.

Cf.St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis, XV:7

25. St. Francis appears to Gregory IX to assure him of the reality of his stigmata

Before he had inscribed Francis, this standard-bearer of the cross, in the catalogue of the saints, the Lord Pope Gregory the Ninth, of happy memory (about whom this holy man had prophetically foretold that he would be raised up to the apostolic dignity), carried a certain scruple of doubt in his heart about whether Francis had really received a wound in his side.  But one night -- as that blessed pontiff himself used to tell with tears in his eyes -- blessed Francis appeared to him in a dream with a certain show of sternnes in his face.  Reproving him for his inner uncertainty, blessed Francis raised up his right arm, uncovered the wound on his side, and asked him for a vial in which to gather the spurting blood that flowed from it.  In the dream the Supreme Pontiff brought him the vial he requested, and it seemed to be filled to the brim with the blood which flowed abundantly out of the side.  From that day he began to feel such devotion towards this sacred miracle, and to burn with such a zeal for it, that he would not allow anyone to obscure these signs with arrogant presumption without striking him with a severe rebuke.

Cf. St. Bonaventure's Major Legend of St. Francis - The Miracles, I:2

Gregory IX promulgated three declarations in 1237 praising the Stigmata of Francis, and defending their genuineness against those who would attack it.